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Sandy saline soils are widely distributed and commonly experience seasonal or long‐term freezing, yet the freezing process in these soils is rarely studied. This research utilized in situ X‐ray computed tomography (CT) to visualize pore‐scale freezing processes in sandy saline soils under various initial water and salt contents. Micron‐resolution observations of pore ice and unfrozen water produced new insights into the preferential orientation and grouping of pore ice crystals, intersections between different pore ice crystal groups causing anisotropic behavior, decreasing pore ice crystal size under faster freezing rates, and the formation of interconnected networks of both pore ice and unfrozen water upon freezing. From a thermodynamic perspective, the salt content in the unfrozen liquid is dependent on the local temperature as described by water–salt phase diagram. Furthermore, the local volume ratio between unfrozen water and pore ice reflects the initial salt content and salt mass transfer occurring due to both diffusion and fluid flow processes. This work improves the understanding of complex freezing phenomena in sandy saline soils through high‐resolution evidence of crystallization patterns, transformation mechanisms, and coupled heat‐mass transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non‐invasive theranostics that integrate the advantages of multimodality imaging and therapeutics have great potential in the field of biomedicine. Herein, a new nanohybrid based on Bi2Se3‐conjugated upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) has been successfully developed through a simple in situ growth strategy. Under 808 nm near‐infrared laser irradiation, the UCNPs can emit bright visible light, whereas the Bi2Se3 nanomaterial exhibits efficient photothermal conversion capacity. Moreover, the as‐synthesized UCNP–Bi2Se3 nanohybrid exhibits efficient cell upconversion luminescence (UCL), reasonable CT imaging, and admirable cancer cell ablation capacity, further emphasizing the efficiency of this strategy for simultaneous UCL imaging and photothermal therapy. The designed theranostic strategy guided by dual‐modal imaging endowed with real‐time dynamic monitoring, remote controllability, and non‐invasiveness makes the UCNP–Bi2Se3 nanohybrid an ideal candidate for non‐invasive multimodal imaging‐guided photothermal therapy for the precise diagnosis and treatment of cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: There is a high desire for novel targets/biomarkers to diagnose and treat colorectal cancer (CRC). Here, an approach starting from a polyacrylamide hydrogel–based lectin microarray is presented to screen the high expression of glycans on the CRC cell surface and to identify new lectin biomarkers for CRC. Three common CRC cell lines (SW480, SW620, and HCT116) and one normal colon cell line (NCM460) are profiled on the microarray with 27 lectins. The experimental results reveal that CRC cells highly express the glycans with d‐galactose, d‐glucose, and/or sialic acid residues, and Uelx Europaeus Agglutinin‐I (UEA‐I) exhibits reasonable specificity with SW480 cells. After conjugation of UEA‐I with silica‐coated NaGdF4:Yb3+, Er3+@NaGdF4 upconversion nanoparticles, the follow‐up in vitro and in vivo experiments provide further evidence on that UEA‐I can serve as tumor‐targeting molecule to diagnose SW480 tumor by multimodal imaging including upconversion luminescence imaging, T1‐weighted magnetic resonance imaging, and X‐ray computed tomography imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]